The Bible and Music

A topic we’ve touched on a little bit throughout the semester is the concept of non-religious people enjoying religious music or people of one faith enjoying the music of another faith.  It’s an interesting thing to think about, because biblical or other religious music inherently revolves around a particular belief system.

This distinction is more subtle in mainstream music.  For example, during the scavenger hunt we found a lot of music by popular artists that had biblical references (U2, Eric Church, Lady Gaga).  Often times listeners to these songs don’t even realize that they are listening to music with religious influences, they just enjoy the sound.  I think people who realize the references, but don’t follow Christianity appreciate the music for the spiritual value.  Everyone has a spiritual connection to something, even if it’s just the concept of family and friends and people can appreciate the broader concepts of religion regardless of their personal beliefs.  Beyond that, these artists are popular because a large portion of the population enjoys the music they produce and how it makes them feel.  This general feeling can outweigh any feelings of religion that a listener might not particularly agree with.